NAAF announces winners

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TORONTO

Three Albertans are among the 14 outstanding people from across the country selected to receive National Aboriginal Achievement Awards during the 13th annual achievement award gala to be held in Vancouver on Jan. 27, 2006.

Dr. Herb Belcourt will receive an award in the housing category. Artist Jane Ash Poitras will be recognized for her contributions in the area of arts and culture. And broadcaster turned communications consultant George Tuccaro will accept an award in the media and communications category.

In 1970, Belcourt, who had already established himself as a successful businessman, started a housing project to provide decent, affordable housing to Metis families moving into Edmonton and Calgary. That project grew into the CaNative Housing Corporation, which, in addition to helping meet the housing needs of the people it serves, also provides scholarships and bursaries to Metis students. CaNative donated a house to be used as a residence for Metis postgraduate students at the University of Alberta.

Adopted by a non-Aboriginal woman after the death of her mother when she was five, Poitras grew up without any connection to her Native roots. She renewed that connection in 1981 and shortly thereafter decided to pursue a career as an artist. Her mixed media works, which explore the impact of colonialism and the strength of Aboriginal people, have earned her wide acclaim and have been exhibited across North America and Europe.

Tuccaro spent 29 years as a broadcaster for CBC Radio North, and also worked on television on CBC Northbeat. He is also a singer/songwriter, comedian and popular emcee. He established a booking agency in the Northwest Territories to help promote northern performing artists, helped to organize the annual Great Northern Arts Festival in Inuvik and volunteers his times to support grieving families. He visits hospitals, seniors homes and prisons and hosts fundraising events.

Other 2006 award recipients include Saskatchewan Aboriginal leader and activist Jim Sinclair, who will receive the Lifetime Achievement Award, and lawyer and professor James (Sakej) Youngblood Henderson, a member of the Chicksaw Nation and Cheyenne tribe in Oklahoma who now calls Saskatchewan home. He will be recognized for his contributions in the area of law and justice.

Nova Scotia's Andrea Dykstra, who recently earned her bachelor of science, will accept the award in the youth category. Scholar and author Taiaiake (Gerald) Alfred from B.C. was chosen to receive an award in the education category.

The award for public service will be presented to Tony Belcourt, president of the Metis Nation of Ontario, while the business and commerce award will go to Bernd Christmas, CEO of Membertou First Nation in Nova Scotia. Elder Gladys Taylor Cook of Manitoba will be recognized in the heritage and spirituality category.

The environment award will go to Elder Billy Day of the Northwest Territories in recognition of his work to protect Inuvaluit culture, rights and the natural environment. The community development award will be presented to Wendy Grant-John of B.C. for efforts to bring economic and social development opportunities to her home community.

Olympic skier Shirley Firth Larsson of the Northwest Territories will receive a National Aboriginal Achievement Award in the sports category. Quebec broadcaster Myra Cree who passed away in October, will be named recipient of a National Aboriginal Achievement Award in the media and communications category, the first time an achievement award has been awarded posthumously.